Ch.706Awkward Reconciliation

The mobile aerial battleship, Alvis, was lost, and the dwarves retreated, leaving only their unmanned weapons behind. The elves couldn’t pursue them. There was no time to chase.

“Take cover! Take cover!”

The unmanned weapons that descended onto the battlefield, true to their nature as soulless metal masses, continued firing relentlessly until they were completely destroyed.

– KWAAANG!

Explosions shook heaven and earth. The ground spewed blood and flesh, while flashes and gunpowder smoke stabbed at their eyes.

The giant bipedal armored machine, Colossus, churned up the earth with machine guns and grenades, while automatons formed a deadly web of fire, pouring bullets like rain.

The noise was unbearable for the elves with their sensitive hearing. They felt the urge to tear off their own ears as they drew their bowstrings.

Arrows of mana, crafted from processed spirits, flew in arcs and exploded, while grenades flew back in retaliation, blasting away the elves’ cover.

“Grenades! Fall back!”

Wood, soil, and rocks shattered and scattered in all directions.

– PUEOK!

The heads of elves who desperately lunged sideways were blown apart by the automatons’ sniping. Their headless bodies collapsed, twitching helplessly.

Even the beautiful bodies of elves, like works of art, proved to be filled with excrement inside just like other creatures.

“Snipers…!”

Seeing their comrades’ heads burst like ripe fruit, spraying eyeballs and brain matter, the elves hurriedly summoned lesser spirits to intercept the incoming bullets.

– KYAAAAA…!

The spirits used as shields screamed and disappeared.

Since they weren’t processed with spirit poetry but simply burst from impact, they hadn’t been destroyed but merely returned to the World Tree.

“Mere mechanical dolls…! I’ll smash you all!”

The elven guardians, their ear tips standing straight up, resummoned higher spirits.

The air warped strangely as massive ethereal bodies sent by the World Tree materialized, embodying forms made of elemental essence.

“KUOOOOOR!”

Higher spirits of fire and stone roared as if showing off their massive bodies and brought their fists down upon the Colossus. It was a grand and majestic sight like giants fighting in mythology.

– CLANK!

The Colossus detached its machine gun and flipped out a blade hidden beneath its forearm, swinging it toward the higher spirit’s fist.

– KEEEEENG!

The alloy blade emitted a piercing sound as if about to shatter.

This was an ultra-vibrating blade that ancient dwarves had equipped to counter higher spirits. When fist and sword collided, the violently vibrating blade scattered the elements forming the higher spirit’s body in all directions.

“KUOOO!”

The higher spirits, their hands blown apart, roared once more, spewing flames and boulders. The Colossus countered by firing wide-area suppression shotguns and unguided rockets from its shoulders.

Flames, flashes, and shattered fragments mixed together, creating a brilliant display like fireworks.

‘As expected, spirits alone aren’t enough.’

Tersillius aimed his bow made of divine wood at the Colossus with sharp eyes. A bow made from the World Tree’s branches. This treasure of Alvheim, bestowed upon ancient guardians, emitted a flash of light.

– KWADEUK!

An arrow shot at the speed of light embedded itself in the Colossus’s hip joint.

The next moment, with a massive flow of mana, enormous tree trunks sprouted from the embedded arrow like dozens of serpents.

– KIGIK, KIGIGIK-!

The tree trunks slithered through the gaps in the joints, wrapping around and constricting the entire Colossus. The mechanical parts inside the Colossus cracked and twisted under the pressure.

Then, a higher spirit’s fist crashed into the creaking, immobilized Colossus like a divine hammer.

The impact was too much even for a metal body. The outer armor that had begun to crack shattered into pieces, and even the internal skeleton couldn’t withstand the shock, crumpling like a rag.

– KUUUNG!

The devastated Colossus toppled forward.

Its crushed power system spewed violent sparks, and unknown liquid dripped from between broken cylinders. It was completely destroyed, unable to move even a single gear.

“—Αδυναμία ελιγμών. Εκτέλεση Διαδικασιών Καταστροφής.”

Then, a crackling mechanical voice came from the speaker located in the Colossus’s head.

The language of ancient dwarves. For elderly guardians who retained memories of that era, it was a familiar warning.

Mobility failure.

Executing self-destruction protocol.

In other words, it was going to self-destruct. As dwarf weapons always did.

“Duck! A massive explosion is coming!”

The guardians urgently called earth spirits to the front while shouting. The elves who had been shooting arrows quickly flew to gather under the earth spirits, ducking their heads and crouching.

Soon, a massive explosion shook the earth.

—-

The elven army of Alvheim advanced relentlessly, breaking through the unmanned weapons’ defense line. It was a swift advance that belied the loss of three guardians.

However, four days later.

The elven army’s seemingly unstoppable advance was unexpectedly halted by a situation they never anticipated.

“A ceasefire negotiation?”

The elven guardian, Eirnesia’s expression twisted strangely. As if she had just heard someone cursing her long-dead parents.

The order from the Council of Elders delivered by the messenger contained something she simply couldn’t comprehend.

“Negotiating with dwarves? Who suggested such nonsense? And who agreed to it? Have they all gone senile?”

“W-well…”

It was an extremely disrespectful statement, but since it came from none other than Eirnesia, the messenger could only sweat profusely without offering a proper response.

Elven Guardian Eirnesia. Having lived for fifteen hundred years, she was someone even the Council of Elders found difficult to reprimand.

This wasn’t because of her power or influence, but because most of the elders were either younger than her or of the same age.

About thirty percent of the Council members were childhood friends who had grown up playing with her in the forest. Even the arrogant and corrupt elders couldn’t treat Eirnesia carelessly.

She was one of the few remaining childhood companions apart from the elders themselves.

“Haah… So, what’s the reason?”

“They say we can’t afford to waste our strength against the dwarves right now. Something major seems to have happened in the human empire.”

“And you don’t know what happened?”

“As a mere messenger, I’m afraid I don’t…”

Looking down at the messenger who lowered his ears and trailed off awkwardly, Eirnesia sighed in frustration and scratched her hair.

After sacrificing three guardians to destroy the aerial battleship, being told to negotiate a ceasefire now was both disappointing and absurd.

‘Or was destroying the aerial battleship ordered with the intention of forcing a ceasefire from the beginning?’

Thinking about it, it made sense.

Since Alvheim had started the war, the dwarves wouldn’t easily agree to a truce. So perhaps the plan was to shock them by sinking their main weapon and then drag them to the negotiating table.

“Seriously, a ceasefire now of all times…”

Eirnesia gazed at the southern horizon with eyes full of regret.

—-

Seven days later, the ceasefire negotiations between Alvheim and Himmel reached a dramatic conclusion.

The great dwarf houses engaged in fierce debate over whether to accept the ceasefire, but ultimately decided to agree to the elves’ terms.

With the aerial battleship Alvis destroyed, they needed to mobilize a new aerial battleship to maintain the front line, but that was impossible for them at present.

“A peace treaty with those pointy-eared bastards! Does that make any sense?”

“We can’t afford to waste our strength on the pointy-ears. We need to reclaim our ancestors’ legacy first!”

Unknown to other races, the dwarves were in no position to wage war with foreign nations.

The monsters that kept appearing no matter how many they killed had occupied the area around the ancient vault where their ancestors’ weapons were stored.

The entrance to the vault remained tightly sealed, so the legacy inside was likely still intact, but if they continued to waste time and the entrance was destroyed…

“We underestimated them as mere monsters… but they possess intelligence. Intelligence enough to destroy self-destruct mechanisms with dark mana and modify our captured weapons. What would happen if our ancestors’ legacy fell into their hands?”

“…Disaster would unfold.”

That was the fundamental reason why the dwarves abandoned their stubbornness and agreed to the ceasefire with the elves.

If they continued the war with the elves, they might be stabbed in the back by monsters wielding aerial battleships, Colossuses, and even more powerful weapons, leading to their destruction.

“Perhaps we should ask the humans for help instead…”

“Do they have the capacity to help us now? Of course not. You must have heard the rumors.”

The head of the Black Hammer clan, one of the great houses, shook his head in rebuttal.

“That the imperial capital, Extrashafel, has been partially destroyed.”

The representative who had been loudly opposing the negotiations fell silent.